5 Ideas for the Ultimate Date Night from Your Apartment:

When you’re stuck at home for months on end, it can seem nearly impossible to come up with creative ways to make life feel exciting. With the Pandemic keeping us in isolation inside our homes, most days feel the same. Today feels like yesterday, and tomorrow will most likely feel much like today. We get it, we're living it too! We admit that the movie Groundhog's Day is a classic, but actually living it is totally underrated!

Time in the bubble can conjure a wide range of emotions - from relief to escape the pressures of work in one moment to boredom and anxiety in the next. Whichever way your mood takes you, it is important to find ways to fill your hours with joy and inspiration. Over 10 months in and we've already completed stacks of puzzles and made more bread than a bakery (okay, we're exaggerating a little bit). Those activities were fun for a few nights, but why not switch things up and create some new moments filled with joy, laughter, and love by trying some of these date night ideas! 

Here are 5 Ideas for the Ultimate Date Night from Your Apartment:

1. Write the Ultimate Bucket List

What will be the first thing you do when the Pandemic is over? Will you see your favorite artist in concert? Attend a live sporting event? Go into the office? Hug your Grandma? Whatever you’re thinking about doing, it can be fun to write these things down, research the options, and envision the moment when they happen. So make your bucket list, and get excited about crossing the activities off in the not-so-distant future. Not being able to do much of anything for months on end can give you a new perspective on what you cherish most about pre-pandemic life. Creating the ultimate bucket list will get you and your partner excited about seizing the moment and experiencing life again.

2. Create an At-Home Movie Theater

Do you love movies and miss the days when you could settle into a theater seat with a big bucket of popcorn? Why not bring the movies to you? Pick up your favorite candy, popcorn, and even a soda at the store, and set up a cozy spot to watch a newly released flick. Luckily for us, it’s the 21st century, and streaming services make it exceptionally easy to create a DIY Movie Theater from your home. So get comfy on your sofa, dim the lights, and get carried away into the magic of film.

3. Tune into a Livestream

DJs and venues have taken their parties into the virtual world, and to attend, you don’t even need a ride home! Nothing will be able to beat seeing a live performance from your favorite artists, but for now virtual concerts will have to do. Google your favorite artists and find out if they are hosting a live stream concert, or just catch them on their live streams in their social channels. This is as close to a concert as we are going to get these days, so we have to work with it! Honestly, watching my favorite artists’ live streams on Instagram and TikTok has kept me somewhat sane during the Pandemic. Unplugged James Bay and Lauv are as good as it gets!  Notable mentions I’ve seen include Sofi Tukker, Diplo, Justin Bieber, and many more.  So turn down the lights, pump up the volume, and dance like no one is watching you (because actually, no one is!).

4. Have a Bake-Off

Chopped and The Great British Bake Off fans unite! Cooking together with your significant other is a fun and romantic activity in general, but if you’re looking to add a little bit of spice, try turning your cooking project into a competition. With only the ingredients you have in your kitchen, challenge each other to create beautiful looking and tasting dishes within an hour. Or, prepare two sets of ingredients and assign each recipe to one of you to create. When it’s all over, instead of being Chopped off the show,  you can sit together and have a tasty meal (unless you butchered your recipe!).

5. Throw a Wine Tasting Party for Two

If you’re anything like us, you miss going to vineyards and enjoying an evening out at the bar toasting a loved one and laughing at life’s funny moments. For some, drinking is no longer a social activity but more so a coping mechanism or an escape from the current reality. It’s time to take a moment to appreciate fine wine or the variety of beers while savoring the flavors of each. Why not order a few bottles of wine or several brands of beer and host a mini tasting from your apartment? Who knows, maybe you’ll discover a new type of wine that will become your favorite. Bonus points if you learn something about how the wine or beer you’re drinking is made in a local brewery or a vineyard halfway around the globe!

When life without social connection is hard to handle, there are ways to stay energized and enjoy life during quarantine. So get creative, find an activity, set up a date, and make it happen. We all need things to look forward to, so your well-thought-out date will no doubt be appreciated and valued. Someday we will be toasting life with friends at a bar, dancing at a concert, and laughing about all the crazy things we did in 2020-2021 to keep us going. But for now, we need moments of laughter and love that are generated from within the bubble. So go ahead, take a plunge and make it happen. Your loved one will thank you for the best night they have had in months!